The present disclosure relates to a system and method for the deployment of a conduit system to convey fluids from a marine vessel to an offshore rig.
Over the years, offshore oil exploration and production has become increasingly important to access hydrocarbon reserves that were previously unavailable. The existence of offshore fields located underwater has led to the development of specialized techniques and equipment to explore and produce hydrocarbons from these fields. While many of the basic processes (e.g., drilling or fracturing) operate according to the same principals as they do on land, the remote locations of the rigs and the unique conditions of underwater drilling can create challenges for offshore rigs or drilling platforms that their land-based counterparts do not experience.
One example of the challenges associated with offshore drilling and production is the logistical difficulty associated with transporting supplies and materials to an offshore drilling site. Ships or other marine vessels generally transport heavy equipment, fluids used in oil field work (e.g., drilling fluid or fracturing fluid), and other materials to the offshore rig. While operators can use cranes to transfer equipment or other solid structures from the marine vessel to the offshore rig, such equipment cannot be used to transfer them from the marine vessel to the offshore rig.
In current practice, operators typically use a flexible hose to transfer large volumes of fluids from the marine vessel to the offshore rig by connecting the two structures directly. During typical operations, the flexible hose is reeled or spooled on the marine vessel that transports the fluid to the offshore rig. After the marine vessel approaches the offshore rig, the operator connects the hose to the rig to form a conduit between the vessel and the rig. This allows the fluid to be pumped to the rig and, if appropriate, to the wellbore. In one example, this arrangement may be used to conduct offshore fracturing work in which the operator pumps the fracturing fluid off the marine vessel to the offshore rig at high pressures through the flexible hose.
However, the traditional use of a flexible hose has a number of disadvantages. These hoses can take a long time to manufacture, and therefore may not be readily available. The flexible hoses are also not typically made with both the diameter and pressure rating that is optimal for fracturing work. In particular, hoses with larger diameters tend to have lower pressure ratings. Moreover, flexible hoses are generally not buoyant. If the hose must be detached at one end (e.g., the marine vessel or the offshore rig) for emergency reasons, it may be suspended from its other end but otherwise sink into the water. If the hose must be detached from both ends, or detached from the marine vessel before it is connected to the offshore rig, then the hose can potentially be lost underwater.
While embodiments of this disclosure have been depicted, such embodiments do not imply a limitation on the disclosure, and no such limitation should be inferred. The subject matter disclosed is capable of considerable modification, alteration, and equivalents in form and function, as will occur to those skilled in the pertinent art and having the benefit of this disclosure. The depicted and described embodiments of this disclosure are examples only, and not exhaustive of the scope of the disclosure.